Current GPU Cost and Availability Issues

takezo_3001

outrider42 said:

I'm not a fan of the front of the case where it is a solid wall. The only air intakes are on the sides of the front panel, and that just doesn't sit well with me. For most cases the front serves as your air intake, and it is often the only intake. The other openings in a case may be large, but if they all are pushing air out, that is not good airfllow. Rendering is pretty hardware intense and you need good all around cooling. I like the cases that have large openings or mesh up front, so they can suck in all the air they need.

My H500 is just that, the front of the case is entirely a wire mesh with two giant 240mm fans. The downside being a lack of front drive bays. But it works. In the Daz bench thread my 1080tis are consistantly among the fastest (if not the fastest) 1080tis on the board, even going back to the old SIckleyield bench. That is not because I overclock them, it is largely due to the cooling system doing its job so the cards can maintain a higher clock for the duration of the render.

The funny thing is the H500 comes with an optional plastic plate for the front. The front has side vents, similar to the ones seen in these other cases. GamersNexus tested with the plate on and with it off, and the difference was night and day. With the plate on it was one of the worst performering cases, but without the plate it jumped to being one of the best. It was that drastic of a change.

And BTW, if you don't like the LEDs on the case fans, they can simply be turned off. But I don't think they are too gawdy. They can be a solid color, or they can slowly change colors. It is not a rapid change like some light show.

I would look up GamersNexus case reviews. They are one of the best reviewers around.

Anyway, while GPUs are hard to get, you may find other parts for a PC build. Since I doubt I will be finding a GPU anytime soon, I took the time to build a new base for a PC. I got a Ryzen 5800X, X570 motherboard, and 64GB of RAM from Microcenter. The 5800X was at MSRP, and with the deal they offer, the motherboard gets discounted $20. The RAM was also at a fair price. So it is possible to get a PC going without getting gouged. Best Buy also sells the CPUs at MSRP. So I am happy with this, and I'll be ready for a new GPU whenever they become available again.

This is a respectable case, airflow is big for me as well as I don't do AIOs but I have a lot of legacy games/backups on disk, so it's always good to have a trusty rewritable on hand, I'm also a data hoarder so a full tower is a must for me, I too have revisited the idea of B&M stores and the like as newegg's abysmal performance as a company, along with theirs and amazon's scalper-priced marketplace sellers are pretty much that scum of the earth, too bad my small city doesn't have a microcenter as they have been getting a lot of GPU stock, much more than online retailers!

Also, don't forget hardware unboxed as well, aside from tech jesus, they are a solid review channel in their own right!

outrider42

Yeah, HUB is very good, but I don't think they do as many dedicated case reviews as GN. But make up for that with their giant benchmark tests. HUB Steve has done 40+ GPUs in these tests. He's crazy, LOL. Tim also does good monitor reviews.

I took a long drive to Microcenter, it is about 2 hours away from me one way. Still, I know some people are even farther than that from one. There are only like 24 stores in whole US, so many states do not even have a single Microcenter. I think the key for them is that they don't do online orders at all on certain high demand items. That is the exact opposite of everybody else. You actually have to go physically to the store to buy a CPU or GPU, so that limits how much the scalpers can do. You cannot use bots for that! It also gives them a reason to maintain their store employees.

So crazy as it sounds during the COVID situation, I think some stores like Best Buy should consider doing that, as that would indeed put an immediate stop to scalper bots buying up inventory. You just have to be there when the store opens. That may be annoying, but at least it would give people a chance.

pds

For those looking for a reputable system builder where you can get a workstation without lots of fancy bling, you might take a look at PUGET SYSTEMS. I preferred their options to some of the other PC builders mentioned in the thread.

takezo_3001

Yeah, it was both HUB and RTINGS.com that helped me decide on my LG 27GN850-B which is miles better than my trusty 11yr old 900p!

I don't have a car, so I can't drive to Georgia which is the closest location for me, but yeah, brick & mortars are indeed an effective weapon against scalpers, hell, even BestBuy anti-bot measures were hacked!

nonesuch00

Quasar said:

I just want to be able to buy a 24GB Nvidia card for $800 or less. Is that too much to ask? 

In the next 5 years porobably realistic & certainly within 10 years.